We've got a 6 month old Yorshon(Yorkie/Bishon) named Lady. She is a fantastic animal. Cute, sweet, friendly and funny. Everywhere we go people freak-out at how great she is. She loves people and she loves other dogs and we love her very much.

BUT I haven't been able to house break her... AFTER 2 MONTHS of Crate training.

Here's how I've been crate training her - She stays in her crate(which she likes to be in) I take her out and if she goes, I give her a reward and tell her "good girl". When she has gone in the house and I catch her, I tell her "no" and take her outside. She still goes in the house.

NOW.. she doesn't even want to go outside anymore(especially in the morning) because there is dew on the grass! We also have a lot of rock for landscaping which is where she usually goes #2. EXCEPT this morning where she decided she doesn't want to go on the rocks because it has dew on it. And it's the summer! What going to happen in the fall/winter? I tried to get her to go #1 in the rocks by burying a washcloth soaked in her urine just under neath the rocks. She smells it and has no interest.

She sleeps in the crate and first thing in the morning, I take her out. This morning I took her out and after twenty minutes of her not going I fed her inside - where she pee'd right beside her food bowl.

Oh, and when she goes on the carpet, I immediately hit it with our carpet steamer and then put down Natures Miracle.

I've also put up a bell and before she goes out, I ring the bell with her paw, open the door, out we go and I praise her. She doesn't have it down yet.

Ok, well, first thing in the morning you KNOW she does physically need to go potty. So if she doesn't go potty outside, it's a pretty safe assumption that given the chance, she will go if you bring her back in.

What I do is this: Take the dog outside, to the spot where you want her to potty. Have her on leash - a 6' leash works best - and stand in one spot. Eventually she'll get bored with being in that same spot - rather than sniffing around the yard - and will potty. When she does, reward her like you have been doing. I would give her about 5 minutes to potty, not 20 minutes. If she doesn't potty in that 5 minutes, carry her inside (so that she doesn't have an accident in the house) and put her back in her crate for about 15 minutes. Then repeat... take her back outside to the same spot for another 5 minutes. Do not let her go into the house without pottying... if she doesn't potty, she must go back to her crate.

If she has an accident in the house, it's your fault for not getting her outside often enough or not managing her (by putting her in the crate if you're pretty sure she needs to potty).... so do not hit her or yell at her for pottying in the house. It's very likely that she doesn't understand that she's getting punished for pottying inside, she may think that she's getting punished for pottying in front of you. Which will make it very difficult for her to potty in front of you outside.

Keep in mind too that small dogs need to potty more often than large breed dogs. In this way, they are much more difficult to potty train, and usually take longer. It's great that your old learned this in 2 weeks, but in my experience, that's exceptionally fast. You will just have to be a little more patient with this dog.

I think I can help you. I have dealt with this so many times in my 30 years of training that I decided to write an article for it and put it on my website. You can go there and print it for free. Go to:

I have a yorkie-maltise too. she's quite the little girl, she's very small, dainty, and is very stubborn. The following worked for me. Kaylin LOVES cheese, and will do anything to get it. So cheese was offered as a treat only after she went where she was supposed to. The only time she got the cheese (a tiny bite) was for potty training. After a while, she would go to the fridge after her stint outside, sit down and claim her cheese.(loudly) Then she tried the do it in more than one time, IE go outside do your thing, claim cheese. Finish cheese, request door, go outside, do a little more, find fridge, claim cheese, repeat as often as we can get away with it. We laugh about it now, but it took a while. As for different weather conditions, Kaylin holds it as long as she can when the weather isn't to her liking, having a couple of brothers helps as an incentive. Good luck